iPhone 4 arrives in Australia

The iPhone 4 has finally made it to these shores and for once the delay has been a good thing.

It's been a long and battering journey thanks to the widely-reported signal loss issue and let's get that out of the way quickly. As soon as this reviewer picked up the phone the signal dropped two bars. That's the way I hold phones. Other people will not have the same problem.

Regardless, Apple is offering free cases to Australian buyers until 30 September. Realistically, the worst that might happen is you drop a call when picking it out of your pocket in an area of low signal. Beyond that it's a minor annoyance of a scale that depends on how you hold your phone.

It's two grams lighter and 3 millimetres thinner that its predecessor, the 3GS, thanks to a flattened rear. The new styling, which revolves around a side-mounted steel band, split the office. To some it instantly made the 3GS look old, while others preferred the iconic silver band surrounding the 3GS' screen. Some will also regard the new model's sharper edges as a retrograde step. Whatever your thoughts on styling, it's certainly no longer the undisputed king of the cat walk thanks to rivals like the HTC Legend, whose Macbook-like chassis is carved out of a solid block of aluminium, and Sony's dinky Xperia X10 Minis which are comparatively tiny.

Regardless of what's written here, it will sell like hotcakes to those who can't imagine being seen without one and avoided to a similar degree by those who view iPhone ownership as a stigma. But those who simply want a top notch smart phone should still be interested.

New features include a tough, scratch-resistant, glass base. The rear camera is now five megapixels (up from three) with flash and offers much faster and better low-light performance than its predecessor. There's also a larger battery (7hrs talk time up from 5hrs) plus a higher-resolution screen. The internal multi-axis switch now rivals a Nintendo Wii in sensitivity which should make for some better gaming down the line. There's also a front-facing camera.

With the latter comes a new trick called Face Time: high-definition video calls over WiFi. We expected to dismiss it as a gimmick - after all, standard-definition video calls haven't caught on in a decade - but we were impressed with the performance and ease of use. We don't see it becoming as widespread and revolutionary as Apple has stated though: a single call disrupted the whole office thanks to the raised-voice levels, but as a 'special occasion' utility for contacting friends and family, it can be a winner. At present it's hamstrung by only being useable over WiFi with other iPhone 4 users. But Apple hasn't ruled out moving it onto 3G networks and the open nature of the application will see it appear on other platforms down the line.

Apple calls the hi-res screen "Retina" display. It certainly makes for crisper viewing of web pages and photos, but to what degree depends on what you're used to. Compared to the HTC Desire, the improvement is minor. Compared to BlackBerrys, it's significant but Samsung's Galaxy S' screen arguably has more-vibrant colours.

In terms of software, the new multitasking is a boon. Apple has steered away from this over recent years, saying that "it needed to be done right". Windows and Android-based smart phone users will testify that applications left to run in the background discharge your phone in just a few hours if something doesn't close properly and Apple has zero tolerance of imperfections like that. Consequently, Apple has introduced strict rules on how multitasking is allowed to work (there are seven different ways of doing it) with the upshot being that applications like Skype and TomTom Navigator can now run in the background, and you don't have to load a game from scratch just because you switched application.

However, you should still be mindful of what's running in the background and manually close down power hungry applications (double click on the main button to access the task manager) when you don't need them, or battery life will be hit. You can envisage Apple squirming at the very thought of this not being fully automated - being fiddly and manually managed is a call sign of Android phones.

Everything ticks along nicely thanks to the speedy 1GHz processor, which combined with Apple's bespoke programming, makes for the fastest operating phone on the market. But it's not an unqualified success.

We're struggling to find a killer feature. Much of what is done here was already done by the 3GS which is still available for some $200 less (depending on where you buy it). The sharp screen is nice for sure, but for many the most practical improvement is the larger battery. For all the gushing over the glass back and steel trim, this will be rendered irrelevant by those who have to use a case just to get it to work properly. Battery life only matches other Android phones - just over a day depending on usage - and it can't hold a candle to a Blackberry.

Then there's the increase in competition. It's taken years for rivals to catch up, but that they have, particularly the top Android phones like HTC's Desire and Legend plus Samsung's Galaxy S. While these tend to be like driving a manual car rather than the iPhone's automatic, they do afford more control and customisation over how your phone looks and functions. More importantly, their 'Cloud computing' principles (synchronising with servers on the internet) are more cutting edge than Apple's focus on syncing with individual computers. Also, Android phones support Adobe Flash, which Apple rejects. While BlackBerry's can't touch either for form or entertainment, they are still the only choice for business-critical email and battery life.

But where the iPhone pulls ahead is its app store which contains more blue-chip applications like Skype, TomTom and eBay, and many more games, than all of the other app stores combined. Android may be catching up, but it will be a while before all developers concentrate on any platform as much as the iPhone.

Pricing depends on your plan, but the new iPhone costs less than expected. One year ago one carrier was offering the 3GS on a two-year $49 cap for $750 up front with 150MB of data. Now, the same carrier is offering the iPhone 4 on the same $49 cap for $200 up front with 1GB of data. It's free on many high-end plans.

Despite the criticisms, it's still the best smart phone available but, unlike its predecessors, it's not streaks ahead of the competition. It's not the 'next generation' of phones we were hoping for and many improvements merely 'catch up' with the competition. Holding a new iPhone should be 'magical' like Apple says, but this one, after a global bashing, feels 'interim'... we're already looking forward to the iPhone 5.

Nick Ross is the editor of the ABC's forthcoming Technology and Games specialist portal. Nick has an extensive background in technology journalism and product testing. The new site will feature news and analysis about technology as well as independent product reviews.